The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-07-21

school days, your early business associ-
ates, the friends of mid life and those who
more recently went away, Can it be that
they have been gone SO long you do not
care any more about them and you do not
want their society, Oh, no! There have
been days when you have felt that you
could not endure il another moment away
from their blessed companionship They
have gone. You say you would not like
to bring them back to this world of
trouble, even if you had the power. 1t
would not do TO trust you God would
not give you resurrection power Before
tomorrow morning you would DO rrv-
Ting at the gates of the cemetery, crying
to the departed; "Come back to the cradle
where you slept! Come back to the hall
where you used to play! Come back to
the table where you used to sit and there
would be great burglary in heaven. No,
no! God will not trust you with resi- 'rection
power, but he compromises the matter and
says " You cannot bring them where you
are" They are more lovely now than ever.
Were they beautiful here, they are more
beautiful there
Besides that, it is more healthy there for
YOU than here, aged man; better climate
there than these hot summers and cold
winters and late springs; better hearing;
better eye-sight; more tonic in the air;
more perfume in the bloom; more sweet
ness in the song. Do you not feel, aged
man, sometimes, as though you would like to
get your arm and foot free. Do you not
feel as though you would like to throw away
spectacles and canes and crutches! Would
you not like to feel the spring and elias
ITCHY and mirth of an eternal boy
hoods When the point at which you start
from this worlds old age, and the point to
which you go is eternal juvenescence, aged
man, clap your hands at the anticipation,
and say, in perfect rapture of soul: 1.-The
time of my departure is at hand"
l remark, again, all those ought to feel
this joy of the text who have a holy Curl
osity to know what is beyond this earthly
terminus. And who has not any curiosity
about it, Paul, suppose, had the most
satisfactory view of heaven, and he says:
1t is like looking through broken tele-
scope: ''Now we see through glass
darby" Can you tell me anything about
that heavenly places You ask me
thousand questions about it that l cannot
answer. [ ask You thousand questions
about it that you cannot answer. And do
you wonder that Paul was SO glad when
martyrdom gave him chance to go over
and make discoveries in that blessed
country!
l hope some day, by the grace of God, to go
over and see for myself; but not now. No
well man, no ,prospered man, l think, wants
to go now. But the time will come, | think,
what they do there, and | want to see
how they do it. do not want to be look
ing through the gates ajar forever. l
want them to swing Open There are
10000 things I want explained you,
about myself, about the government
of this world, about God, about
path of what we know, and in a
minute come up against a high wall of
what we do not know. | wonder how it
looks over there. Somebody tells me it is
like a paved city-paved with gold; and
another man tells me it is like a fountain,
and it is like a tree, and it is like a tri-
umphal procession, and the next man ]
meet tells me it is all figurative. l really
want to know, after the body is resur-
rected, what they wear and what they
eat and | have an Unreasonable curiosity
to know what it is, and how it is, and
where it is Columbus risked his life to
find this continent, and shall we shudder
to go out on voyage of discovery which
shall reveal vaster and more different
country John Franklin risked his
life to find a passage between
icebergs, and shall we dread to find pas
sage to eternal summer? Men in Swift
zerland travel up the heights of the Mat
terhorn with alpenstock and guides and
rockets and ropes and getting half way
up, stumble and fall down in a terrible
massacre. They just want to say they
had been on the tops of those high peaks
And shall we fear to go out for the ascent
Of the eternal hills, which start a thou
sand miles beyond where stop the highest
peaks of the Alps, and when in that as
cent there is no peril! A man doomed to
| die stepped on the scaffold and said in joy:
| Now, in ten minutes | will know the
| great secret One minute after the vital
| functions ceased the little child that died last
night in Montague street knew more than
Jonathan Edwards, or st. Paul him
self, before he died Friends, the exit from
this world or death, if you please to call
it, to the Christian is glorious expla-
| nation 1t is demonstration. 1t is illu-
mination. 1t is sunburst. 1t is the opening
| of all the windows. 1t is shutting up
the catechism of doubt and the unrolling
of all the scrolls of positive and ac-
curate information. Instead OF stand
ing at the foot of the ladder and looking
up, it is standing at the top of the
| ladder and looking down. 1t is the last
mystery taken out of botany, and geology,
and astronomy, and theology Oh, will it
not be grand to have all questions an
swered! The perpetually recurring inter
rogation point changed for the mark of
exclamation. All riddles solved. Who
will fear to go out on that discovery when all
the questions are to be decided which we have
| been discussing all our lives Who shall not
clap his hands in the anticipation of that
blessed country, itit be no better than through
holy curiosity, crying: "The time of my de,
parture is at hand@'
| | remark, again, we ought to have the Joy of
the text, because, leaving this world, we move
into the best society of the universe. You see
great crowd of people i'll some street, and
| You say: "Who is passing there! What Gen
eral, what Prince is going up there" Well, L
see great throng III heaven. / say: "Who
| is the focus of all that admiration. Who
10 fba of hat
1t is Jesus, the champion of all worlds, the
favorite of all ages, Do you know what
is the first question the soul will ask when
it comes through the gate of heaven!
think the first question will be- "Where
is Jesus, the Saviour that pardoned my sin
thai, carried my sorrows; that fought my
battles; that won my victoriesn o radiant
One! how l would like to see Thee Thou OF
the Manager, but without its humiliation
Thou of the cross, but without its pangs
Thou of the grave, but without its darkness
The Bible intimates that we will talk
with Jesus in heaven just as brother
talks with brother Now, what will
you ask him first? / do not know l car
think what l would ask Paul first, if ! saw
him in heaven. l think l would like t.
hear him describe the storm that came
upon the ship when there were 275 soul
on the vessel, Paul being the only man OIL
board cool enough to describe the storm
sea that | shall never get over and l thinl
| would like to hear him talk about tina
first. But when l meet my Lord Jesu
Christ, of what shall first delight to hea
Him speaks Now ] think what it is
shall first want to hear the tragedy of hi
last hours; and then Luke's account of tn
crucifixion, and Marks account of tn
crucifixion, and Johns account of the cru
cifixion will be nothing, while from tn
living lips of Christ the story shall be tol,
of the gloom that fell, and the devils tina
arose, and the fact that upon his endurance
depended the resuce of a race; and there wa
) darkness in the sky, and there was darkness il
the soul and the pain became more sharp, an
the burdens became more heavy until the mo
began to swim away from the dying vision O
Christ, and the cursing of the mob came t
} his ear more family, and his hand
} were fastened to the horizontal piece O
. the cross, and his feet We're fastened I,
the perpendicular piece of the cross an,
his head fell forward in a swoon as h
uttered the last moan and cried: at
! finishedn All heaven will stop to liste
! until the story is done, and every har
, will be put down, and every lip CLOSED
and all eyes fixed upon the divine nara
tor, until the story is done; and then, a